The fifth LGBT Adoption & Fostering Week closed on Sunday 13 March. Reaching a record number of LGBT potential adoptive parents and foster carers, the campaign’s twitter hashtag alone reached over 19.2 million* people. The week brought together adoption and foster care agencies from across the United Kingdom, with information sessions stretching across the country. Over 100 prospective parents and carers joined New Family Social at a special information event in London, hot on the heels of a similar event in Manchester. Prior to both of these adoption and foster care professionals heard about the latest good practice about working with LGBT people.

Social media saw the likes of Coronation Street stars such as Brooke Vincent, Catherine Tyldesley, Daniel Brocklebank, Charlie Condou and Michelle Collins all back the week. Eastenders’ Maddy Hill, Danny-Boy Hatchard and Luisa Bradshaw White lent their support too, as did Emmerdale’s Alicya Eyo. Also spreading the word on twitter were the likes of Michelle Visage, Googlebox’s Stephen and Chris, Marcus Collins, and Nicky Campbell. Across the pond Martina Navratilova, Steve Grande and Dustin Lance Black helped raise awareness of the week too. There was widespread support for the week from many politicians, with MPs and councillors from the Labour party, Liberal Democrats and the SNP all retweeting the campaign’s messages. The Minister of State for Children and Families, Edward Timpson penned a supportive piece for Pink News, saying: ‘Excellent parents come in all shapes and sizes and from all backgrounds – what matters is giving children the start they deserve.’

Media coverage saw pieces appearing in the local media from Brighton to Edinburgh. Gaydio featured the week on three separate occasions, with Attitude, Gay Star News, GScene all helping the campaign reach their readers.

On Facebook we were thrilled to showcase our partners from across the UK in a Q&A, addressing the real concerns LGBT people have around adoption and fostering. For the first time we were able to hear from partners in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Thanks to their involvement and to all our friends and partners on Twitter NFS’ social media followers rose over 8,600.

There’s still time to find out more about LGBT adoption & fostering as there are information events still taking place. You can find the nearest to you on the ‘In your area’ section on this website.

(*Between 04/0316 and 14/03/16 there were 3,017 tweets using the campaign hashtag #LGBT2016, by 1,734 users with a potential reach of 19,029,661 people.)